Christianity almost impossible without indoctrination

[The Reality Salesman01]

Almost impossible? Maybe, but it's clearly possible.

Atheists tend to be those that didn't get brought up with religious parents, but there are some who were Christians and now lack belief.

I was raised in Jesus Town USA (Texas). With 2 devout Christian parents, the belief was much harder to shake than I imagine it being for the lesser brainwashed of those who convert away from their faith. Of course, to Christians, I was just never truly faithful, and I get the "No true Scotsman" argument. But I assure you, that is a bunk response. I was raised with unwavering devotion and loyalty to a God I was convinced existed. I was entirely willing to receive any message that God had for me. But it became apparent as a young man, that I had been fooled by others, as well as myself. Anyone who says that a Christian turned Atheist was never really a true Christian to begin with is attempting to dismiss my allegiance in order to substantiate the validity of their own self-proclaimed relationship with God. I imagine that this is akin to anything one may decide to invest in. Economist have shown that people tend to assign higher worth values to things after they've purchased them, and things they may have found to discourage them from their purchase before they bought it, are more easily overlooked once they own it. Someone trying to sway them away from the amount of value they've placed on the product can be easily dismissed on the grounds that they don't understand because they don't have one themselves. If the person trying to sway the the person has in fact once owned one, they too can be dismissed on the grounds that they either didn't appreciate it, or didn't own the SAME one. At any rate, the value is assigned by the individual, and very little outside information is considered in the assessment once the investment has been made.

Christians have all been brought up by religious parents and/or school indoctrination. There are none that were brought up without any indoctrination.

Sorry, but this one is just not true either. It's true for a large amount of people, especially here in America, but it's a fallacy to operate under this assumption on the whole. People have found Christianity within societies and households dominated by incompatible religions, and vice-versa.

Now there will be occasional exceptions to this, though a lot of the "I used to be an Atheist then I saw the light" brigade don't seem to know what an Atheist actually is and were brought up Christians and have always believed a God exists. There are also a few genuine Atheist turn Christians. From my experience they are very very rare (I've never met one), though you can find the odd story on the internet.

There are all sort of people that claim Atheism for different reasons. But in the end, an Atheist is just someone that doesn't believe in God. I would agree that Atheists that were previously indoctrinated Christians will be a very hard close on any conversion pitch, but there are easier targets out there that are very naive and susceptible to their tactics. An indoctrinated Christian turned Atheist is probably akin to a carnivore turned vegetarian after they've strolled through a cattle slaughter house for a "How it's made special". They ate meat at one point, were very devout meat-eaters, but after watching cattle get dismembered and maimed and the unforgettable stench of mutilated flesh that consumed the room. That sort of vegetarian is probably going to be a bit harder to convert than your average Joe that is merely a vegetarian by his never experiencing the taste of a juicy steak.

(P.S. I love steak. In my experience, you can take the Christian out of Texas, but you can't take the love for beef out of the Texan!)

...but you get the idea.